30-06-10Maoists have once agained ambushed CRPF personnel near Narayanpur in Chhattigarh. Reports of killing of 26 personnel including CRPF Officer Assistant Commandant Gulati has been received and the final figure could be more.

The attack occured when 70 personnel of the 39 Battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force were conducting a Road Opening Operation on the Narayanpur - Orcha road.

According to reports, hundreds of Maoists opened fire on the CRPF jawans from a hilltop. The jawans fired back in relatiation, but there it is not known if any Maoist was injured or killed. The incident occurred only 3 kilometers from the CRPF base camp.

Before this, barely 3 months ago, more than 70 CRPF personnel had lost their lives in an attack by Maoists also known as Naxalites in Chintalnar in Dantewada district not very far from Narayanpur.

The Naxal movement has got its name from the 1967 protest by farmers in a Naxalbari village of West Bengal.

According to a senior police official, four persons on cycles opened fire on Dinesh and Tansen, sons of Baliram Kashyap the BJP MP from Bastar - when they had gone to attend Mahashthami Durga pooja in their ancestral village about 20 kms from Bastar.

Elder brother Dinesh sustained serious injuries in his shoulder while Tansen succumbed to the assailants bullets. The assailants managed to escape and it is being strongly believed that they attackers were naxals.

The two brothers were rushed to Maharani Hospital in Jagdalpur where Tansen was declared dead. Dinesh Kashyap has been transferred to Raipur for treatment.

The incident has occurred even as the state and central governments are planning to launch a campaign against the rising menace of Naxalism. On Friday (yesterday) the country's Home Minister P. Chidambaram visited Raipur and held discussions with Chief Minister Raman Singh assuring all support to the state government to curb and defeat extremism.

18-05-09The results of General Elections in Chhattisgarh state have shown a repeat performance of its state elections that were concluded at the end of last year.

BJP has won 10 seats out of 11 in the state whereas Congress has managed to win only the newly created Korba seat. Charandas Mahant the state working president of the congress party beat BJP's Karuna Shukla, the niece of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

PC No

Constituency

Winner

Party

1

Sarguja

Murarilal Singh

BJP

2

Raigarh

Vishnu Deo Sai

BJP

3

Janjgir-Champa

Shrimati Kamla Devi Patle

BJP

4

Korba

Charan Das Mahant

INC

5

Bilaspur

Dilip Singh Judev

BJP

6

Rajnandgaon

Madhusudan Yadav

BJP

7

Durg

Saroj Pandey

BJP

8

Raipur

Ramesh Bais

BJP

9

Mahasamund

Chandulal Sahu (Chandu Bhaiya)

BJP

10

Bastar

Baliram Kashyap

BJP

11

Kanker

Sohan Potai

BJP

The state unit chief Vishnudeo Sai of BJP has given all credit for party's victory in the state to the clean image of Chief Minister Dr. Raman Singh and the development work in the state.

The election results in the state are being seen as a major setback for the state's first Chief Minister Ajit Jogi. All of his supported candidates in the state lost with big margins. His wife Dr. Renu Jogi also lost to BJP's Dilip Singh Judeo from the Bilaspur seat by more than 20000 votes.

02-03-09Chief Minister Raman Singh's government in Chhattisgarh State is reported to have announced the acceptance of the 6th pay recommendations for the employees of the state government.

The decision was taken today in a meeting of the Cabinet hours before the Election Commission is expected to announce the national elections. Details of the decision are still awaited.

The state government employees have been eagerly awaiting this announcement since the central government announced the acceptance of the 6th pay commission recommedations last year.

In fact, this was one of the election promises made by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) during the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections which concluded in December 2008.

The decision by the BJP government of Chhattisgarh has come today just in time before the moral code of conduct is implemented in view of the forthcoming central elections.

The opposition has already accused the BJP's of trying to influence the election process making this announcement today when the Election Commission of India is expected to announce the national elections in a short while.

08-12-08Out of the trends and results out in Chhattisgarh so far BJP is ahead in 42 seats, Congress is leading in 37 seats while both BSP and NCP are ahead in 1 seat each.

Chhattisgarh State Elections 2008 - A summary.

Polling was conducted in Chhattisgarh in 2 phases. 39 seats in south Chhattisgarh polled on 14 November 2008, while remaining 51 seats had polled on 20 November 2008.

Election Commission carried out polls in almost 21000 polling stations across the state for its 1.52 crore voters out of which 69.58% people cast their votes.

1066 candidates from contested for 90 seats in the state out of which 387 were independents. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were the only parties to contest in all the 90 seats of the state.

Congress had fielded candidates in only 87 seats, leaving out 3 seats for its poll alliance partner NCP

Results / trends for Bilaspur district in Chhattisgarh are as follows...

20-11-08Polling for 2nd phase has started in Chhattisgarh promptly at 8 am today (Thursday) morning. About 88 lakh voters will elect 51 MLAs who will represent them in the state assembly for the next 5 years.

Former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Ajit Jogi is amongst the candidates in the fray for todays polling.

There was some news about confusion about the starting time of polls for the day. Some early voters had reached their polling stations assuming that voting would start at 7 am.

The confusion arose because the voters' slips that were distributed by the candidates mentioned that voting would be from 7am to 5pm.

Long queues had started building up by 8:30am with voters eager to cast their vote early and get back to their daily routine.

By today evening polling will have completed for all the 90 seats in the state - first phase of polling for 39 seats was already completed on 14 Nov 2008.

Counting will be done on Monday 8 December 2008 after polling is completed for Rajasthan, Delhi, Mizoram and Madhya Pradesh.

19-11-08Chhattisgarh State General Elections 2008 polling for phase 2 will begin within the next 12 hours - starting 7am on 20-Nov-2008.

The fate of 687 candidates will be sealed in the electronic voting machinces by tomorrow evening for 51 seats in 8 districts.

Candidates from 7 national parties are in the fray out of these only Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have fielded candidates for each of the 51 assembly seats going to polls tomorrow.

Indian National Congress (INC) has fielded candidates for 48 seats, in the remaining 3 constituencies Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the poll partner of Congress, has launched its candidates into the fray.

08-11-08A FIR has been filed against Congress leader Mahendra Karma and 2 time MLA in Chhattisgarh for allegedly trying to bribe a voter.

Mahendra Karma is a senior congress leader and former minister from Dantevada in Chhattisgarh. He is contesting for his third term in the Chhattisgarh State Assembly.

The money-for-vote scandal erupted when a section of the media had photographed him giving a money to a tribal woman. It is alleged that while campaigning in Behramgarh area of his constituency soon after an election speech he was seen giving the money to the woman and telling her to vote for him.

Acting on directions from the Election Commissioner a complaint filed by the returning officer. The police has registered an FIR charging him under Section 171B of the Indian Penal Code.

A show cause notice has also been issued to Mahendra Karma by the election commission for violation of the moral code of conduct through the district election office.

Voter will cast their mandate in Dantewada in the first phase of the state elections on 14 November 2008.